


James' First Christmas

by Mustang_Girl16



Series: Avengers at Christmas Time [4]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/M, First Christmas, POV Natasha Romanov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 16:15:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8898961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mustang_Girl16/pseuds/Mustang_Girl16
Summary: It's James' first Christmas and Natasha's not quite prepared for how fast he's growing up.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! *waving happily at everyone* its only one week till Christmas and I'm so not ready! It doesn't even feel like December where I am, yesterday it was like ten degrees and I woke up to everything covered in an inch of ice and this morning I woke up to it raining and 60 degree weather *internally rolling my eyes*. And also has anybody else seen the new beats commercial with the song from Pinocchio "There are no strings on me"? Yeah it's creepy. AoU ruined that for me.   
> Any way on to the story this is a one shot that I based on what my parents used to do every Christmas Eve. It's Steve/Nat centric and coming from Natasha's POV. Also for some reason I see James as one of those kids who'll give you a run for your money. So I hope you like it!

Tomorrow was James’ first Christmas. James was already eight months old, already on the verge of walking, thanks to Steve’s serum and much to Natasha’s dismay. He was a happy and very energetic little boy. He practically skipped crawling all together and the thought of him being completely mobile on his own scared the hell out of her. He hasn’t said his first words yet, but babbles like there’s no tomorrow. Both she and Steve are very reserved people, so the fact that their son was like a little Mexican jumping bean, wasn’t helping.

He also didn’t sleep. Therefore when Steve came out of James’ room looking more relieved the closer he got to the living room, meant he had succeeded in putting James to sleep. Natasha walked over to him giving him a kiss as she handed him a glass Asti . While she was more of a vodka girl, she did enjoy the muskiness the wine had, it also gave enough of a kick so she wouldn’t pass out from exhaustion.

Between James’ non-stop personality, Steve being sent out on missions and training the recruits, and her overseeing missions and also training recruits, there was no time to sit down and actually wrap gifts for anyone. Hence why at nearly one in the morning on Christmas Eve after spending the evening at the Stark’s Christmas party, she and Steve were wrapping all the presents for James and their “extended family”. Well she was wrapping and Steve was watching the Christmas Carol, the original 1938 version because he refused to watch any of the later ones, and ate cookies.

Natasha had this down to a tee. Each person had their own wrapping paper, making it easier for not only the person receiving the gift but also an extremely tired Steve, who was in charge of labeling the gifts. His old-fashioned handwriting was perfect for Santa. By the time everything was wrapped and taken out to the common room, it was quarter to five. Natasha felt like falling asleep where she was sitting on the floor, like Steve had done nearly two hours ago. She guessed at some point she did just that, because the next thing she knew Steve was carrying her to bed.

“IT’S CHRISTMAS!!!” was the alarm that Natasha and Steve woke up to as all three Barton children burst into their room, dumping two year old Maria and baby James on the bed. Natasha groaned and flopped back down on the bed. As she asked the kids what time it was.

“Its 6:30, come on! Uncle Tony said everyone has to be up and in the common room before anyone gets to open their presents and you and Uncle Steve are the last two!” Lila answered as she shook Natasha up.

“Do you guys not sleep?” Steve asked looking at the far to awake children.

“Only on Christmas! Come on!” Cooper grabbed Steve’s arm while Lila grabbed hers, preceding to drag them out of bed, well as much as Steve and Natasha were willing to let them.

“Alright. We’re coming, we’re coming. Come here big guy.” Steve lifted James off the bed and guided the other four kids from the room. “Just let me go change James-”

“-No need. We already changed him.” Cooper cut in. Steve just looked at the boy surprised before he continued. “Now let’s go!”

Steve turned back to look at Natasha giving her a look of exasperation. She grabbed her robe and slipped it on as they followed the children down to the common room. The fire place was lit and the lights on the Christmas tree gave off a soft calming glow. The windows were frosted with the snow that had fallen last night and the smell of fresh coffee filled her senses. Pepper walked over and handed her a mug filled with the delicious dark drink.

“Thank you.” Natasha said as she took a sip of the coffee.

“Why do you two look like death warmed over?” Tony chuckled as he took in the soldier and the spy.

“Feel like too.” Steve said as he gulped down his coffee.

“Whoa, wanna breathe there? What time did you guys go to bed last night?” Tony asked with a slightly tired smile.

“He conked out at maybe 3-4 this morning. I think I finally passed out at five maybe.” Natasha took another sip of her coffee as Steve poured himself more.

“Please tell me my kid did not see anything pg-13.” Tony laughed as Steve glared at him.

“As much as I would like to say we scared you kid, no. We were up wrapping gifts all night.” Natasha said as she tried to rub the not out of her neck.

“Why did you guys wait till last night?” Tony looked at them like they were crazy and honestly that’s just about how Natasha felt at the moment.

“It was the only time we had.” Steve took Natasha’s mug and refilled it.

“Why didn’t you say something, we could have sent them along with ours to Janine.” Pepper said as she looked over at the tree with all the presents underneath.

“Janine?” Steve asked

“Yeah she’s our personal wrapper.” Tony said this like it was the most obvious and normal thing to have your own personal wrapper. “Barton sent all the kids gifts in advance and we had her wrap them so he and Laura didn’t have to worry about it.”

“You couldn’t have mentioned this before now?” Natasha stared at the couple with annoyance.

“Sorry. Hey who wants to open presents?” Tony said to the kids as they all cheered and made for the tree.

Natasha sat down on the plush carpet in front of the coffee table so she could watch James and Steve. James’ eyes were bright with joy as he was seated in his father’s lap. It felt strange to be sitting there, she can still remember last Christmas vividly when she told Steve they were having a baby boy. The excitement she saw in Steve’s eyes then will never exceed the pure love and joy she sees in them now. She saw Steve smiling at her and pull out a small box from underneath the tree. James took the box from his father and was completely entranced by the metallic snowflake paper.

“Nope this one’s for mamocka.” Steve said as he tickled James, causing him to start laughing, his laugh was like music to her ears.

James wriggled his way out of his father’s grasp, present still in hand. Steve gave his son a mock glare, eyebrows raised with a smile creeping across his face, as James just stared back. He looked over at his mother with a broad happy smile, the smile that told her he was about to do something cute or throw the present, as he stood up, it became clear it would be former. Steve instinctively went for the box, so James wouldn’t throw it at her, but was shocked when his son preceded to _walk_ to Natasha. Everyone went silent as they watched the unsteady, but determined boy. James tripped on the lip of the carpet, but Natasha quickly grabbed him before he could hit his head on the coffee table.

Natasha squeezed her little boy in her arms as her eyes filled with tears. James just giggled in her arms as she kissed his head she heard Tony ask JARVIS if he got that on video. Steve sat down next to her looking dumbly at her than at James clearly as shocked as everyone.

“You finally walked!” He said as he set the boy down in his lap. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Was this my present?” Natasha laughed, as she tried to process what just happened.

“If you’re asking me if he’s been practicing, no. I’m just as surprised.” Steve was smiling from ear to ear, just like James was.

“That’s our boy. Always full of surprises huh?” she took James back in her arms as he shoved the box in her face, shaking it.

She took the present from James and unwrapped the box. It was a small square box that she knew had to contain a piece of jewelry. She rarely wore jewelry other than her wedding rings and her necklace with James’ birthstone that Steve had bought her when he was born, so she wondered what it could possibly be. When she opened the box, inside was a round gold expandable bracelet with a single oval charm on it. When she pulled the bracelet from the box she noticed it came with a card that explained the meaning behind the bracelet:

[“A mother’s love and support is extraordinarily strong without limitation. The peony, the queen of the garden, symbolically encompasses the maternal traits of healing, love’s blessing, and bravery.”](http://www.alexandani.com/relationships/family-gifts/mom-charm-bangle.html)

Natasha set the card back in the box and slipped the bracelet on. After wiping the tears from her face she leaned over to Steve giving him a gentle, passionate kiss as she murmured “I love you.” against his lips.

“I love you too.” he said as he hugged her tight, James squirmed between them as he huffed in protest.

“I love you too malyutka.” As she kissed the top of his head.

To say her life turned out better than she thought it would, would be an understatement. She never knew how much she wanted this, how much she would love being a wife and a mother. It was still a strange feeling, and still hard to believe it was real. Yet here she was, wrapped in her husband’s arms, after just watching their beautiful baby boy take his first steps. Now she couldn’t ever imagen her life without them.

Natasha watched yet again as their son got up from her lap, regained his balance and walked over to Clint who was sitting on the couch. He leaned down to scruff the little boy’s hair, only to be denied, as James snatched his cookie and took off in the other direction, before Clint could register what happened.

“Hey! Get back here with my cookie!” Clint yelled as ran after James.

“Bozhe moy…” Natasha’s eyes widened with realization as she watched Clint jump from his seat and run after the little cookie thief. “He’s fully mobile.”

**Author's Note:**

> The bracelet that Steve gives Natasha it the Mom Charm Bangle from Alex and Anil. I gave this one to my mom for her birthday and she loved it.  
> Also the Asti is the Martini and Rossi Asti Spumante sparkling wine. Every year my mom would drink it, when wrapping our gifts and my dad watched the movie and ate "Santa's cookies." My mom also still has special wrapping paper for everyone. She also still writes from Santa on all of our gifts even though all of us are grown now. Any ways I hope you guys liked the one shot fell free to tell me what you think.


End file.
